Thermal analysis during a rotational friction welding

Welding of two cylindrical metal parts end by end by means of a rapid rotation of one of the parts generates thermal effect due to friction. The duration of friction has a substantial effect on the resulting solder joint. Therefore, finding the optimal friction time is important to ensure a good quality weld. Very dispersive values of the optimal friction time are reported in the literature depending on the operating conditions. The objective of the present study is to determine the optimal friction time in order to obtain the required temperature for a good solder joint. A numerical simulation is carried out to analyze heat transfer in the two parts to be assembled. A thermal map is established within the two parts to show the extent of the heat affected zone and deduce the best operating conditions for a good quality of the weld. Then, experiments are conducted to validate the numerical predictions and check the quality of the weld. The prediction results allow highlighting the effect of different welding parameters on the quality of the weld. Thus, a correlation is proposed for determining the optimal friction time in terms of the influencing parameters. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.